“Have you heard anything lately?” the Stilt Walker asked excitedly, as he perched on his tall stilts. “They say that Wanli Temple and Weeping Grave Mound—all those places have disappeared.”
His colleague, wrapped tightly from head to toe, stared straight ahead without responding.
“What a shame. I was thinking of going to take a look one of these days.”
“...”
A pigeon flew down. The Stilt Walker untied the bamboo tube tied to its leg and released the bird. After reading the note, he chuckled again. “Wow, interesting. Someone’s wiped out the White Bone Tower. Any newcomers making a name for themselves lately?”
“...”
“Even though you don’t talk much, I still like having you as my partner.”
“Excuse me, seniors—are you talking about the White Bone Tower?” a young man with a scholarly air turned around to ask.
“Yes, that’s the territory of the Nine-Headed Old Monster. That guy was pure evil, terrorizing the whole region,” the Stilt Walker said, happy that someone was finally willing to talk to him. “Young Master Zhou Lian, your teacher must have told you about him, right?”
Zhou Lian nodded. “My teacher specifically warned me to avoid conflicts with these rogue cultivators whenever possible.”
“Your teacher is right. Those creatures are less human than beasts. I’m curious who managed to take down that old fiend.”
“Whoever it was, killing is wrong. They should have handed him over to the Imperial Observatory for judgment,” Zhou Lian said.
At these words, even the other observer from the Imperial Observatory paused.
Seeing the Stilt Walker’s strange expression, Zhou Lian asked, “Senior, am I wrong?”
“Right, right, right! You’re absolutely right! How could you be wrong?” The Stilt Walker took a deep breath and muttered under his breath, “How did a family as impressive as Grand Preceptor Zhou’s end up with such a fool?”
His colleague shot him a glare. “Keep quiet and get moving. We’ll reach the Huai River in half a day.”
“The heavens have their cycles. Those who do evil will be punished by heaven...” Zhou Lian continued, warming to his theme.
The Stilt Walker muttered again, “Evil earns heaven’s punishment? Then why hasn’t your Grand Preceptor been struck by lightning yet... Ow! Why’d you kick me?”
Meeting his partner’s piercing gaze, he fell silent.
But now he understood exactly how Zhou Lian had fallen into someone’s trap—pure stupidity! If the pressure from above hadn’t been so intense, he would have waited until the fool was dead before bothering to help.
—
“You just want these souls, right? Let me go, and I’ll give you all of them,” said the man with withered arms, staring at the figure before him. He had underestimated the boy.
Fang Zhiyi grinned. Behind him, several black shadows howled and darted about.
“Are you crazy? If I kill you, they’re mine anyway.”
“You—you’ll be punished for this!!!”
“We’ll worry about that when it happens.”
With a single sword thrust, silence fell.
Fang Zhiyi watched the black sword absorb the souls and muttered to himself, “Should be enough now...”
He glanced at Xiaoxiaohei, who hadn’t spoken in a long time, and then added, “To be safe, I should level up a bit more.”
He turned and left the stinking cave.
—
Xu Xiaoya had never imagined she’d get stuck with an idiot.
It all started when she was exorcising evil spirits for a client and saw a scholar giving alms to a few beggars. The beggars, becoming greedy when they saw his money bag, stole it. Remembering how she once lived the same way, Xu Xiaoya sent Gao Mingzhi after them in pursuit.
Gao Mingzhi had no mind of his own—only an endless hunger for feeding. Since joining Xu Xiaoya, he’d rarely had enough to eat. Facing a few terrified beggars, he naturally showed no mercy.
But when the scholar chased after them, he ended up protecting the very beggars instead. He carried many talismans and magical tools. Sensing Gao Mingzhi’s unstable state, Xu Xiaoya quickly recalled him.
Unfortunately, that allowed Zhou Lian to track her via the lingering energy.
First, he scolded her for raising a vengeful spirit; then came endless lectures.
Xu Xiaoya, annoyed, simply went home. But Zhou Lian clung to her like a stubborn leech, waiting outside her door.
“Miss Xu, you’re so young. Why can’t you practice enlightened arts properly? Why must you rely on a dark spirit to make a living off trickery?”
Xu Xiaoya wanted to curse at him. When had she ever been a swindler?
What made it worse: every time she tried to perform exorcisms for others, Zhou Lian showed up.
He put on a show of concern for her well-being, but all he did was sabotage her work.
Xu Xiaoya grew furious. After one of his interruptions nearly cost a client’s son his life, she snapped. She went to the Huang family to beg for a way to get rid of Zhou Lian.
But the Huang family investigated and found that Zhou Lian had massive backing. They themselves were nothing in his eyes.
With no way out, Xu Xiaoya decided on her own solution.
“You won’t leave? Then I will.”
She took the children and fled the courtyard that very night.
But fate seemed determined to torment her. Wherever she went, she kept running into Zhou Lian. Once, she might have been moved by his earnest arguments—but not anymore. Now she saw everyone with suspicion.
In her eyes, Zhou Lian was a textbook hypocrite.
When others were plagued by evil spirits, he’d say things like “Evil begets evil; heaven’s justice takes its course.”
But once, when a noblewoman was kidnapped by a demonic cultivator who stole her soul, Xu Xiaoya knew it was beyond her capabilities—then Zhou Lian showed up. It turned out the victim was his distant relative.
That day, Xu Xiaoya saw rare urgency in him. He abandoned all his own principled speeches, summoned help from the Imperial Observatory, and struck down the demonic cultivator, obliterating his soul completely.
That was when Xu Xiaoya finally saw his true colors.
“No wonder he’d always lecture others with that ‘righteous evil comes to justice’ talk—until the knife was at his own throat!”
Sickened, she turned and left. She bought a carriage and wandered with the children, her only goal to find a way to cure them of their affliction.
With Gao Mingzhi under her control, she was no longer as timid as before.
“Sister Xiaoya...”
“Yes, I’m back. Let’s go.” Xu Xiaoya grabbed the reins. Hardship had forced her to learn; she’d become a decent driver.
“Sister Xiaoya...”
“Don’t worry. I’m fine. I just went to have a look. Remember, stay far away from that idiot Zhou Lian. Being near him spells nothing but disaster!”
“Sister Xiaoya...”
Finally, Xu Xiaoya sensed something wrong. She spun around, and the massive dark spirit leaped from the bell at her waist.
“Who’s in there! Don’t touch them!”
A hand pushed back the carriage curtain. “Oh? Quite the fierce aura you’ve got.”
Xu Xiaoya’s face went from wariness to shock—and then tears spilled out. “Gousheng!!!”
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
